Thanks for your post on the Gates, but next time tell us what you really think.
More seriously, I've been mulling over for some time now the idea of trying to start a campaign for left-leaning non-profits to convert to Linux.
I'm sitting here looking at my two Red Hat CD-ROMS, trying to get up the gumption to *try* to install them on my work machine without immobilizing myself for a week. I appreciate some of the present deficiencies of the system for the end-user, which is as far as I go, technologically speaking.
I can't help but think, however, that with a broader constituency these problems would resolve with some time.
A widespread switch to Linux would be important testimony to the basic economic feasibility of non-profit production in what, to the public, is a counter-intuitive field;
The switch would hurt Microsoft, which threatens to become a major source for right-wing political projects, and perhaps caution Gates to restrain himself from retaining such persons as Grover Norquist;
The migration of important institutions (e.g., the labor movement) would contribute to a critical mass of users which could cause significant leaps in the development of Linux-world software.
Insofar as Microsoft itself is a threat to the nation's economic well-being, the campaign could be an educational tool of such novelty as to attract more than passing interest. There is also Nader's important conceptual distinction between philanthropy and the social implications of unequally distributed wealth.
I'm strictly an observer in the computer biz, so I'm interested in what others more closely involved think.
Cheers,
Max